A Cruel Mind
by Mycha
Summary: When a previously unknown witch decides to go after Amon for his presumed evils, someone else may have to pay the price as well. Rated for violence in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Thanks to 'A New Witch' over at the MuseBunny for the naming of this story.

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Disclaimer: I do not own WHR or it's characters, nor do I make any money from them. I simply like their world and enjoy playing in it.

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Amon casually leaned back against the wall, one foot propped up against it, arms crossed across his chest, watching the scene before him. He had just come back from the field and the rest of the team had yet to notice him.

Sakaki was playing some hand held video game. His feet were resting on top of his desk, precariously balancing him as he leaned far back in his chair. Amon resisted the very small, childish urge to walk by and put a hand on the younger man's shoulder, pushing just enough to cause him to fall.

Michael was being Michael. He sat typing away at something on his computer, oblivious to what was going on around him. From his vantage point, Amon had no idea if it was work related or not – you could never tell with Michael. Likely as not he was working **and** playing at the same time.

Then there was Robin and Dojima. They **were **acting almost like sisters, he mused to himself. Dojima was playing with Robin's hair, braiding it in some fashion so that her hair was pulled back from her face, but most of it was left loose to hang down her back. From where he was, Amon couldn't hear what they were saying, but Robin was blushing and looked to want to disappear. Dojima, on the other hand was laughing, seeming to be teasing Robin until the younger girl couldn't help but laugh along.

He was fighting the urge to smile, though letting a little of the smirk show, when Michael looked up and broke the picture.

"Hey, Amon. Did you find what you were looking for?"

Amon ignored the question. Instead, he pushed himself away from the wall he was leaning against as he resumed his normal, cold facade. "Where's Karasuma?"

"Uh... she went to look in on some suspicious activity..." Michael started, only to be interrupted by Sakaki.

"Good morning, Karasuma-chan!" Sakaki exclaimed. Robin and Dojima waved.

"Good morning!" She glanced at the helpless look on Robin's face and covered her mouth lightly, trying not to laugh out loud.

"Karasuma, come with me." Amon's voice held the stern timbre that usually had people mentally cower in fear. The brunette merely raised an eyebrow at him and followed the lead hunter out to the other side of the elevator.

Amon wasn't sure what he was going to say to her. Saying anything would reveal his unrest. He wasn't one who liked to show his weaknesses, regardless of how minor they were. This, however, was something that he needed the woman's insight on.

Karasuma was obviously getting concerned. Amon had stood there concentrating a bit too long for his normal demeanor. Sighing, he passed a folded piece of paper to her while he turned to look over the railing and down towards the well.

Opening the paper, Karasuma's eyes grew wide. As she read, Amon could hear the deep intake of breath and knew that his co-worker had likely scribed the letter.

"Where did you get this, Amon?" Her voice was soft and hesitant as she tried to swallow the lump of fear that had suddenly appeared in her throat.

"It was under my door this morning," the dark hunter replied, a steely edge lacing his words. Hearing it, he paused a moment to regain control of his voice. "You haven't received anything like this, have you?"

"No, have you asked the others?"

"I don't want to tell them about it yet."

"But..."

"It would only serve to frighten them," he interrupted sternly. "Can you tell anything about the person who left it?" Amon knew that sometimes the brunette could actually tell the difference between who left which emotions on an object. Not having her talent, he didn't know why there were times when she couldn't, but he hoped that this was one time she could.

"No, I'm afraid not. I can only feel your emotions." She faltered a moment, his feelings of anger had been so strong that she wasn't sure if she **could** have felt anyone else's emotions in that message. But feeling them, she also realized that Amon had allowed her to see something of himself that he never shared with his colleagues. This stoic, unemotional man who led the team, who was always looking out for danger, always ready to pounce, never showed weakness. She knew the entire team, herself included, got much of their strength from his example. It shocked her that he could even feel this strongly about anything.

Amon gave a slight nod. It was what he had expected. He had been annoyed when he saw the paper under his door, figuring it was something from the management of his apartment complex. When he picked it up and saw the pictures of the team on it he had been concerned, but that quickly transformed into anger as he read the message.

"Is it because my emotions are too strong?"

Karasuma paused briefly, debating how to answer. "I don't think he left any imprint on the message," she finally replied. It wasn't a lie, not entirely. She simply couldn't feel the presence of anyone else's emotions on the message, so there was a good chance that there weren't any. At the same time, she didn't want to indicate exactly how strong his emotions were. That kind of admission could easily put Amon in an even darker mood than he already seemed to be in, and she wasn't wanting to be the source of his anger if she could avoid it.

She looked at the message again:

**_Ah, the happy 'family'._**

**_You, the stoic, aloof father watching over your brood._**

**_Karasuma, the calm, nurturing mother figure._**

**_Sakaki, the typical boy – exasperating his mother at every turn, and angering his father even more with his lack of ambition._**

**_Your second 'son', Michael, the child that any parent would be proud of – smart, reliable, always on task._**

**_Then there are your 'daughters'._**

**_Dojima is the fashion queen and free spirit of the group. Always up to some sort of mischief._**

**_And of course Robin, the baby of the 'family'. Everyone always loves the baby, don't they? Calm, soft spoken and determined, she wins everyone's heart._**

**_What would you do, friend, if something were to happen to one of your 'children', I wonder?_**

Next to each description was a computer printed picture of the person it was about, usually in some scenario that seemed to emphasize the writer's comment. It was more than a bit unnerving.

"Amon, do you have any idea..."

"No," he cut her off abruptly, taking the message from her, "I don't know who would send this, but I can't make myself believe that this is just some idle threat. I took it to forensics this morning. They didn't see anything that would be helpful in determining who the sender would be."

"Then what are you going to do? We can't **not** tell the others..."

Again, he interrupted the woman, scowling. "We **won't** tell the others. Not until we have more information. We have a job to do, we can't have them worrying about this. They wouldn't be able to focus if they knew." He had already thought about telling them before quickly dismissing the idea. At best it would make most of them nervous, at worst it would put them in more danger than they already were. Either way, it was bad enough that Karasuma knew that the message had shaken him. The rest of the team didn't need to know it.

"But Amon," Karasuma continued, heedless of the wrath she knew was simmering just below his surface, "if we don't tell them..."

"I know, Karasuma, I know," he replied, exasperated. "But I can't have them worrying about something that might be nothing until we know more. We don't even know whether this is a prank or not. For now, just keep your eyes open and let me know immediately if you notice anything strange along these lines."

Abruptly, Amon stood and turned to go back to the main office where the rest of their co-workers were, his typical air of indifference pulled back around him. Karasuma could barely suppress the shiver she felt working its way down her spine. She had a bad feeling about this, and she really didn't like that Amon was wanting to keep everyone else out of the loop, but she wasn't about to cross the dark, imposing man either. He was the leader at the STN-J, as far as the hunters were concerned, but it was more than that. Over the several years that she and Amon had worked together, Karasuma had come to respect the closed, brooding man's capabilities and authority. As much as she didn't like it, she would follow his order – at least for now.


	2. Chapter 2

Robin gazed quietly at her partner. She could tell that he was in one of his angrier moods. Amon was rarely in what most people would call a 'good' mood, though there were some that she would have labeled as 'good' relative to his normal disposition. He hadn't said anything when he returned from talking with Karasuma other than to call a meeting to discuss the witch they had hunted the night before and pass out assignments for the day.

Now the two of them were out driving to a warehouse on the other side of town. There had been a sighting of a witch on their target list, so they were checking it out. She almost hoped that some witch or another would be there for them to hunt. That, at least, might break some of the tension that she could feel rolling off of her partner.

"Amon," she began softly, hesitantly. Amon turned his cold glare at her, causing her to look down at her hands in her lap. Presently, she sighed and turned back to look out the window.

Amon, glanced at his teenage partner. Somehow, her calm presence stilled the clamor of his jumbled thoughts and allowed him to concentrate on the task at hand. It wouldn't do either of them any good if **he** couldn't focus.

'_She's strong. I don't have to protect her like a child,_' he thought to himself. He knew that he was trying to relieve some of his own mental burden, but he also knew that that wasn't really the source of his apprehension.

The two of them had fallen into a pattern of sorts on their hunts. He led, she followed. They watched each others backs. In the past few months since Robin had transferred to the STN-J, he had gotten to a place where he could feel where she was in relation to himself. It was a new experience that he found to be a bit unnerving. He had never let a partner get that close to him in the past. As much as he hated to admit it, even to himself, it made him feel more confident in both her and the success of their hunts. The removal of some of his inner self doubt, though, he knew also hinted at a dependency in their relationship. He loathed being dependent on anyone or anything.

All this said, he knew that when they were hunting, he would know where she was. He didn't have to worry about the disturbing message, he simply needed to concentrate on the task at hand and the witches they were facing. He had to do his job and stay focused on it.

_'Some things are easier said than done.'_ He tightened his grip on the steering wheel at the thought and continued to speed off to their destination.

&&&

Karasuma was apprehensive. The message Amon had shown her was weighing heavily on her mind, as was his order not to speak of it.

"Hey, Miho. Where are you?" Dojima teased, standing in front of the older woman, waving a hand in front of her face.

Karasuma gave a small grin to the blond. "Nowhere. Just thinking. It's nothing important, really."

"Wow, that's something pretty distracting for being unimportant," Sakaki interjected. "You've been sitting there staring for quite a while now."

Rubbing her temples, Karasuma merely sighed. "I must be more tired than I thought," she lied.

"Well, I'm off. There's nothing to do here, and I'm bored."

"Wait for me, Dojima. I'll join you..." Sakaki called as he gathered his things from his desk. Within moments the two were conversing animatedly as the elevator door shut behind them.

Karasuma walked to her desk and began going through the files on it. A small smile crept across her face as she thought of Sakaki and Dojima leaving. _'We are a bit like a family,'_ she mused to herself. _'Though I do find it hard to think of Amon being very paternal...'_ The last thought brought an unexpected giggle.

Michael glanced in her direction, raising an eyebrow in curiosity, but he didn't say anything.

&&&

Hands buried in his pockets, Amon strolled across the park aimlessly. He had dropped Robin off at her flat with Touko over an hour ago, but he was too restless to go back to his own home.

With no true destination in mind, he found himself wandering into Harry's. Sitting down, the owner raised his eyebrow in Amon's direction, holding up a glass. Distractedly, he nodded and Kobari poured him his typical drink. Taking the offered glass, the dark hunter swirled the contents slowly, still lost in his own thoughts.

After some time, Amon realized that the older gentleman was gazing at him questioningly as he cleaned and dried the glasses at the bar. When he looked at his own drink, he noticed that the ice had melted away. _ 'When did that happen?'_ With the faintest of shakes, he threw his head back and drained the contents of the glass.

"Something bothering you?" Kobari quietly asked in his unassuming manner. The silent hunter had been coming to his bar for many years now, and the barkeep knew that it was unlikely he would receive an answer. He could also tell, however, that something was bothering the younger man more than normal.

Resting his chin on his fist, Amon pondered the man's question briefly before slowly nodding. "Have you heard anything from your contacts lately?" It was dancing around the real question, but it was a safe question, none the less. Something about the bartender allowed Amon to instinctively drop his guard a notch, though that didn't say much since he normally kept his guard up so high to begin with.

"Possibly. What are you looking for?" It was a game the two men played. Amon knew that Kobari had contacts all over the witching community and would try to get the most information with the least amount of questioning while the bartender tried to pinpoint exactly what Amon was looking for and give him only enough to help in that area.

"Have you heard of anyone having a vendetta against the STN-J?"

Master raised his eyebrows at the question while Amon mentally berated himself for asking it without thinking. _'Of course people have vendettas against the STN-J. We hunt witches. Likely anyone who has any kind of power wants us all dead.' _

Annoyed, Amon growled softly at himself before trying again. "Specifically, anyone recently who has seriously talked of going after one of us? Someone who could actually pose a threat?"

Kobari paused a moment, looking critically at the dark man sitting before him. _'This is an odd question, especially from him.' _

"No, not of late. There are always rumors, of course. But I'm sure you knew that already." The younger man nodded absentmindedly in response. "If I may, why do you ask?"

Amon shook his head, still obviously concentrating on something. "It's nothing really, just an odd message I received. It's probably just a prank." Quickly his features became hard and cold, hiding any trace of the worry that he had shown moments before. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few bills. Dropping them on the counter he moved to leave.

"I'll keep my ears open and let you know if I hear anything," the fatherly bartender added, a touch of concern in his voice. Amon gave the man a curt nod and turned to leave.

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**A/N:** I hope you are enjoying the story so far. Please feel free to review and let me know what's good or bad about this.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own WHR or it's characters, nor do I make any money from them. I simply like their world and enjoy playing in it.

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Amon woke from a fitful sleep. It was still far too early to be going into the office, so he dressed to go for a morning run. As he moved around his room, he glanced at every window and door, checking to see if anything new had shown up during the night. Thankfully, there was nothing. '_Must have been a prank_,' he tried to convince himself, but it was a hollow attempt.

The sun was barely up, casting a pre-dawn glow about everything. It was almost comforting to be in the real world doing something so normal and commonplace. The fact that the thought even crossed his mind, though, reminded him of how strange his dreams had been and how wound up the message from the previous day had made him.

Amon walked into his apartment, and after a quick look around without seeing anything amiss, went and changed for work. He was tense, still. He had thought the run might help relieve some of it, but in fact it hadn't. Walking from his room he was lost in thought when he grabbed his coat and gun. As he pulled the gun off the table by the door and put it into it's holster, he noticed a piece of paper lying on the floor. Grimacing, he opened it up, glancing quickly at it's contents.

**_Hmm. So, are these two lovers, or do all your 'children' get along so well?_**

Under the brief message were several pictures of Doujima and Sakaki. It looked like the two of them were out together, and from the look of the pictures, it didn't seem like they were on a hunt. '_Shopping, maybe? Or a date, even?'_ Amon wasn't sure, and didn't actually care about that, though something in the back of his mind said that he should. What bothered him was that it was obvious that the author of the message had been following them around. By the looks of some of the pictures, he had followed rather closely.

Repressing the urge to hit his wall, the normally phlegmatic man gathered his emotions and locked them away, putting on his mask of indifference before he walked out the door. If the person responsible for this was anywhere around, he wanted to make sure they didn't see that they had disturbed him. He was determined to be as unresponsive as possible. If this person was trying to get under his skin, he wasn't going to give them that satisfaction.

It didn't, however, stop him from driving like a demon to the office. He purposely didn't live all that close to Raven's Flat. Some days, he thought, it was just for this reason. There was something to the danger of driving like this that helped calm him. Mentally he could imagine himself chasing after, and subsequently running over, the person who was causing him his current angst.

'_If the person had been that close to Sakaki and Doujima, what would his next step be?_' Amon didn't like the idea. If he could get that close, he could get even closer. The looks on Sakaki's and Doujima's faces told him that they weren't paying attention to what was going on around them. It would be easy to sneak up on one of them. As much as the impassive man hated to admit to it, none of the other hunter's were particularly cautious when they weren't actually on a hunt. For most people that would be an enviable thing, but at that moment he found it to be aggravating.

"Where's Doujima?" Amon's cold voice interrupted the silence of the room when he entered the office. Michael jumped slightly in his chair, surprised to see the irritated hunter standing immediately in front of him.

"I'm sure she's off playing hooky as usual," Sakaki piped up, his cheerfulness grating mildly on Amon's already tense nerves.

"When did you last see her?" Amon leveled his stern gaze at the young hunter.

Sakaki shifted uncomfortably under Amon's stare. "Uh... well..."

"I already know that the two of you went out yesterday. When did you part ways?" Robin glanced at her partner. There was an edge to his voice that was unusual even for him. She didn't want to say anything at that point, but she could tell that under Amon's typical harsh tone, there was something else.

"Oh... well," Sakaki began, knowing full well that the older hunter was probably going to lecture him at length about the impropriety of dating co-workers. "It wasn't what you think, Amon, I swear!"

"Sakaki, I don't care right now what you were doing. When did you last see her?" Amon growled.

"Good morning, everyone!" Doujima cheerily called out as she entered the room.

"Where have you been?" Amon spun around to look at the bubbly woman, unleashing his anger and frustration at her with those four words.

Doujima stopped in her tracks, wide eyed. The look on her face told of how Amon's tone had caught her off guard. Watching her, Sakaki noticed something else. There was a tint of weariness in her eyes, something that wasn't part of her normal character, regardless of who was lecturing her.

Without waiting for an answer, Amon turned on his heel and stormed down the hall, leaving the rest of the team grappling with the fury he had left in his wake. After a moment of stunned silence, Robin jumped out of her seat to run after her partner, wondering what was bothering him.

"Doujima, what's going on?" Sakaki whispered to the blond hunter after determining that no one was close enough to hear them by the coffee pot. When she looked questioningly at him, he continued. "I mean, when you came in. You didn't sound as cheerful as you normally do. What'd you do? Stay up partying all night?" Sakaki tried to joke. He knew that wasn't the cause of her mood, though. She wouldn't be in the office yet if it had been.

Doujima glanced around the office quickly. "Come on," she whispered, inclining her head toward the elevator before casually wandering that way herself. Confused, Sakaki followed her, glad that Amon wasn't in the room to lecture them for sneaking off.

&&&

"Look at this," Doujima said conspiratorially, pushing a piece of paper across the table to her companion. Glancing at the paper, his eyes got larger as they scanned down the page until he looked up incredulously at her. "It was under my door this morning," she replied, answering the question on his face. "You didn't by chance get something similar, did you?"

Sakaki shook his head. "We should tell Amon about this. If someone is stalking you..."

"No. He would just tell us that unless it was a witch, it's not our problem and that I should just call the police. But still, it's a bit unnerving that this would happen. If the pictures weren't disturbing enough, the message is just downright strange," Doujima cringed slightly.

The two hunters looked at the message in silence, each pondering the meaning of it and what to do next.

**_Do your 'parents' know of this illicit affair?_**

The pictures that followed were of the two of them from the previous day, holding hands, laughing, sharing an ice cream. It was obvious that someone was following them, but Doujima couldn't fathom why.

"So, if you aren't going to tell Amon, are you going to tell the police?"

"I don't know," Doujima replied. "It feels rather stupid for a hunter to call the police over such a little thing. I'm sure it's just someone playing a prank. Likely some of the kids in my building. It's just a bit... I don't know, unnerving, I guess."

"Yeah, I bet!" _'For you and me both!'_

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**A/N:** As always, reviews are always appreciated!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own WHR or it's characters, nor do I make any money from them. I simply like their world and enjoy playing in it.

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"Is everyone in position?" Michael's voice clearly queried over the microphones.

The two pairs of hunters answered affirmatively when they got where they were supposed to be.

"Hey, relax," Karasuma whispered gently, noticing how on edge Sakaki was. "This one isn't that dangerous. Besides, we're just here as back up." She had no idea why Sakaki was so jumpy, but she found that she was glad it was Amon and Robin who were going to take on the witch directly. She wasn't sure that her partner could focus enough to not end up botching the assignment. Not that she didn't normally worry about these things. Sakaki was young. He was older than Michael and Robin, but he tended to be more reckless. She knew that Amon was disappointed in her for not being able to get her partner under better control, but he never said anything about it directly to her. Instead, their fearless leader usually took it out on the younger man instead. After Amon's actions that morning, though, she didn't want either of them to have to face that type of wrath.

Robin had run after her partner, likely thinking that she could do something to calm him. When she came back, she looked on the verge of tears. Karasuma had overheard Amon whisper apologies later to the blond witch, much to her own surprise. In all her time with the STN-J, Karasuma had never heard Amon apologize for anything. She couldn't help but let out a small smile. Something about the young craft user had gotten hold of the man. He was calmer, gentler with her than Karasuma had ever seen him be with anyone. He would hide it under his mask of indifference, but she still saw it.

The capture was quick and painless. The witch had been a rather easy target. Amon likely didn't even need his partner for this one, but he rarely hunted without her anymore. That he had Sakaki and herself in tow showed the brunette woman how much on edge he was.

"Karasuma-chan..." Sakaki began as they were driving back to Raven's Flat.

"Hmm?" The older hunter glanced sideways at the younger.

"Uh... could I ask you something?"

Now Karasuma looked directly at her partner. "Of course." It was obvious by his tone that something was really bothering him.

"This is going to sound foolish. I mean, it's not meant to be, but..." Sakaki grumbled in frustration before taking another breath and trying again. "If you thought you were being stalked, would you tell the team?"

After pulling into her parking spot, she turned full on to look at the young man beside her. He was obviously distraught about something. Her partner actually reminded Miho of a little kid trying to confess to something without admitting to the guilt.

"You think you're being stalked?"

"No! Not me! Doujima," he exclaimed, mistaking his partner's tone for incredulity. "She showed me a note that she found under her door this morning. It wasn't that big of a deal, but..." He stopped speaking, trying to figure out what to say next.

"But you think it might be a bigger deal than just a prank?"

"Yeah."

"Well," Karasuma paused, pretending to be thinking on how to respond while mentally she cursed Amon for his stubbornness and unwillingness to tell the team about his message from the previous day. "I would likely tell the team. I would definitely tell Amon."

"Really?"

"Yes."

Sakaki leaned back against the door, a look of relief crossing his face only to be followed by one of concern. "Doujima didn't want to say anything. She thought it was likely a prank from some kids in her building, but... I don't know. It kind of creeped me out."

"You should at least tell him about it. It would be better if Doujima did, and showed him the message, but he needs to know."

"Do you think you could tell him?" Now Sakaki really **did** sound like a little kid. "He'd at least listen to you. Somehow I think he'd just glare at me for worrying about it."

"You really should do the talking. It sounds like you've at least seen the message." Karasuma couldn't blame him for not wanting to bring this up to their foreboding leader. Under normal circumstances, Amon likely wouldn't appreciate being pulled into this, but there was just too much of a coincidence that two of the team received messages from an unknown 'stalker' within two days.

&&&

"Hey, Amon. Wait up!"

Sakaki was running to catch up with the man in the elevator. Rolling his eyes, the older hunter held the door and waited, gracefully stepping out of the way when Sakaki jumped in and almost ran into him.

"Uh. Has Doujima talked to you today?" Sakaki fidgeted, then mentally apologized to Doujima for the breach of confidence he was about to perform.

"She talks at me every day."

"I mean, did she talk to you about anything unrelated to work, anything strange going on with her..."

Amon raised an eyebrow in the direction of the younger man. "Sakaki, I really don't want to know what is going on between you two. As long as it doesn't interfere with your work..."

"No. That's not it," Sakaki couldn't help but feel awkward at the direction that Amon thought he was going. "She didn't want to say anything to you, but Karasuma thought that I should..." Amon glanced at his co-worker, a sinking feeling in his gut. Sakaki mumbled to himself, trying to figure out what exactly to say. "I think that someone is stalking Doujima."

Now Amon was surprised, though his dispassionate mask never wavered. "Oh?"

"Yeah. She received this message under her apartment door this morning. It was all printed from a computer, it looked like, but it had pictures of us from yesterday... Not that the pictures were bad. We didn't do anything." Amon glared at the quickly rambling man as if to tell him to get to the point. Sakaki understood and went on. "Anyway, there was a message on it that asked something about if her parents knew what she was doing."

The elevator had gotten to the parking level, and as they walked out, Amon grabbed his fellow hunter by the shoulder to indicate that he wasn't going anywhere besides right outside the doors. "You saw this message?"

"Yeah. It actually freaked me out a bit. I think it did her too."

"Why isn't she the one telling me this?" Amon's eyes narrowed, thinking. Sakaki, however, misunderstood the look.

"Look, I swear to you, I'm not making this up! She just didn't want to tell anyone. But, I don't know, it bugs me."

"I believe you, Sakaki. I'm just thinking. Do you think you could get her to bring the message with her to the office tomorrow? I want to see it."

"I can try. Though she's liable to hit me for telling you. She didn't think you would..."

"It would be good for us to look into it," Amon interrupted. "With what we do, you never know when some witch or another will show up looking for revenge. If you can get her to bring in the message, then Michael might be able to find something out."

Amon could almost feel the look of relief on the young hunter's face. '_Shit. So now I'm not the only one getting these messages. This one, at least, __**sounds**__ harmless in comparison to the one from yesterday. It could give us something to work with without my having to tell them everything.' _Amon knew he was trying to rationalize his own behavior, but if they were actually from the same source then it might not really matter.

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**A/N:** As always, reviews are nice, though constructive criticism is even better!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: You know the drill... I don't own the characters, Bandi does.

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"Doujima." Amon's voice was commanding as usual. Doujima, for her part, rolled her eyes before turning on her smile and facing the foreboding man. With the mood he had been in lately, she didn't want to give him any reason for yelling at her, so she didn't bother with any sort of snide reply as she usually would. She just looked at him and waited. "I hear you have something that you need to show me." Doujima blinked her eyes, startled.

"Show you?" Amon responded with a quick nod of his head.

"Yes, show me. Sakaki told me of an interesting message someone left for you yesterday."

Now Doujima was really caught off guard. '_I'm going to kill that boy,' _she fumed to herself. "It was nothing, Amon. Just some kids playing a prank, I'm sure."

"I would still like to see it. If what Sakaki told me about the message and the pictures is true, I would prefer to make sure that you weren't being targeted by a vengeful witch."

Doujima looked at Amon with wide blue eyes. She obviously hadn't thought that a witch could have sent it. Though, Amon thought, it was rather unlikely that a witch would stalk her. She rarely hunted. Someone going after her would more likely be using her as a distraction from the real target.

&&&

"So, now that everyone has seen this, has anyone else been receiving any threatening messages? Even messages that looked like they were meant as a joke?"

Everyone was sitting in the meeting room, quietly looking at the copy of Doujima's message on their screens. Amon noticed Robin shift uneasily in her seat, but no one said anything.

"If any of you do, I want you to bring it to me. A prank is one thing, but we shouldn't take chances. There will always be those wanting revenge on us."

"So you think this is rather serious?" Michael questioned, the worry evident in his voice.

"I hope not, but we can't be sure."

Karasuma was staring at Amon, mentally asking why he wasn't making his own message known. She wouldn't dare bring it up in front of the others, but she somehow felt that he was being hypocritical with his hiding of that information.

When it was obvious that no one had anything to add to this revelation, the meeting was closed and everyone slowly left the room. Robin sat where she was, obviously lost in thought.

"Robin," Amon said softly, sitting down next to his young partner. "You haven't received any strange messages like this, have you?" He tried to keep his voice neutral but he could hear the tinge of concern that laced it. She merely shook her head, causing her strange pig tails to bob with the motion. Amon sat next to her, waiting for her to speak.

"Why would someone do that to her? And she's taking it so well. I would be terrified if something like that happened to me." She shuddered as she spoke, her emotions lying plain for all to see. Amon felt bad for the young witch. She always worried about others, but he found himself worrying about her right now.

"Robin." Amon waited for her to look up at him. "If you ever get something like that, tell me." Robin nodded her head, almost absentmindedly. "Robin, say it. I want you to promise me."

Robin looked up at the dark man and thought that she saw a flash of concern cross his face. She blushed, thinking that it must have been her imagination. "I promise," she responded in her quiet voice.

Amon got up to walk out of the room, his mind already turning towards how to find the messenger, when Robin spoke again. "Amon..."

"Yes?"

"Should I tell Touko if something like that shows up?" The worry was evident in her voice. _'Just like her to think about her flat-mate.' _

"Touko knows what we do." He knew it wasn't an answer, but it got to the root of the question. He wasn't going to tell her carte blanche to immediately tell Touko, but he didn't want to explicitly tell her that she would have to decide that on her own. She didn't need any more weight on her shoulders.

When he entered the main office area, he had to duck out of the way of something hurtling towards him. Looking on the floor, the projectile looked to be one of the many cola cans Michael was collecting on his desk. Amon looked up to find Doujima nagging Sakaki.

"I can't believe you told him, you little rat!"

Karasuma and Michael were both sitting back, out of the way, watching the scene before them. They both seemed to be highly amused.

"Hey!" was all Sakaki could say in response before he dodged another can hurled in his direction. "What? I'm not allowed to worry?"

Amon heard a soft snicker behind him. Turning, he saw Robin, covering her mouth with one hand, trying not to laugh too loudly. Amon, himself, resisted the urge to respond and walked to his desk, catching the next can that wildly missed it's moving target.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

The firing range was quiet and empty, save for himself. It was just how Amon preferred it. It's not that he particularly disliked it when others were there, but he always felt more comfortable alone. Too many times people had asked about his marksmanship skills, or his plethora of guns. His glare usually made them whither and leave him alone, but just often enough someone would truly not get it and he would end up leaving early.

The muffled sound of the gun was calming. After this previous week, he needed calm. Every day he could feel himself get wound tighter and tighter. Doujima's message seemed to have been the last. Perhaps it had been a prank after all, though if his messages and her message were from the same person, as it seemed, it was an odd prank. It would have made more sense if it had been Sakaki and Doujima or Sakaki and Karasuma to receive messages like those, or he and Robin for that matter. Those were the pairings, the first being a non-work relationship and the others being work related. He quickly shoved those thoughts aside.

As he cleaned his gun, his mind started wandering back to the messages. It was more than a little odd that there had been three in two days and then they abruptly stopped. They had had two hunts between the last message and today, so it was feasible that one of them had been the culprit in this game but not probable. The somber man sighed as he finished his cleaning. He didn't really have anything else on his mind, so obviously this annoyance was going to keep haunting him.

"Sir! Wait!" Amon turned around as he was leaving the building to see the owner running after him. Amon waited for him to catch up.

"Someone dropped this off for you," the man panted as he handed Amon a sealed manila envelope.

Amon glared at the offering. "Who brought this?" he sternly asked. Somehow, though, he already knew the answer.

"I don't know. I turned to answer the phone and when I turned back, it was lying on the desk."

Amon looked critically at the envelope, noting his name written in neat calligraphy across the front.

"Arigatou," he responded curtly while turning on his heel to stride off.

During the drive back to his apartment, Amon kept glancing at the envelope. It wasn't until he felt the knot in his gut that he realized how much he had hoped that the culprit had been caught already and these strange messages had stopped.

&&&

Amon dropped the envelope onto a nearby table before he removed his boots. Walking to put away his coat and gun, he kept glancing at the unwanted object. He suddenly realized that he was trying to delay the inevitable. The realization alone was enough to annoy him. Snatching up the envelope, he pulled out his knife and slit the top edge. Carefully, he pulled out the contents.

**_Ah, so the cold man's heart isn't truly made of ice. He does occasionally show concern for his 'family' though even they might not realize it._**

Another brief message followed by pictures, all printed out from some computer. This time, there were several pages of the grainy black and white images. Amon felt his jaw drop as he recognized them. Some of them were several years old, for instance there was one that had most of the team from when Amon first arrived at the STN-J standing around a crime scene. Others were more intimate, such as the one of him carrying a former co-worker away from a scene. It was from one of the young hunter's first hunts with the team. Somehow the witch had been able to throw the other man against a wall, knocking him unconscious. Then there were others that could have been at any time, like the one of him sitting with his arms crossed patiently listening to (_no, ignoring_, he mentally corrected himself) Doujima who was being overly animated. The pictures seemed to span his entire history with the STN-J, including one of he and Robin on a stake out.

A shiver went down his spine. Whoever was playing this game with him had been playing it a long time. What's more, he never knew it. Amon prided himself with his observational abilities, but this proved that even **he** wasn't immune to distractions. His mind ran in several different directions at once, and all begged for attention. Closing his eyes, he willed it to silence and began to think of his options. He felt he no longer could hide this. He would have to bring it up to the entire team tomorrow. The volume of photos, and how old some of them were, demanded that everyone be told. Now that he had three of them, he knew that there was little chance that this wasn't someone intentionally trying to vex him. The real question was were they just trying to get to him, or were they really after everyone? In the back of his mind he hoped that Robin didn't get one of these, though it did still seem rather odd that Doujima had.

He was getting more than a little impatient. When one doesn't do much but live, eat and breathe work, waiting is annoying. Finally with a small growl, he grabbed his things, including the envelope, and headed towards the office.

&&&

"Hey, Amon. What brings you here?" Michael was sitting in front of his computer playing some game but had noticed Amon's presence almost immediately.

"Michael, I've got some work for you."

Michael sighed and tried not to look upset at the prospect. It had been some time since he had been able to just relax and game, but with Amon making the request, he knew he would have to put his play time aside.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Remember the message that Doujima got the other day?"

"Yeah. I've been looking into it, but there really isn't anything that could be used to track the person down."

"I'm not surprised. I received one this morning. I was hoping that maybe this might give you something to work with."

Amon handed an envelope containing copies of the original message, to Michael. The teen opened the envelope carefully, looking to examine what was inside. Seeing the first page, he took in a slow deep breath, causing Amon to glare at him. "Wow," was the stunned hackers only comment.

"We need to figure out who is sending these before they get threatening."

"Threatening?"

"Start seeing what you can find, Michael." Amon didn't even bother to see his reaction. He simply turned and went to his own terminal and started searching for information. There were so many pictures from so many places, there had to be some sort of connection that could at least help them figure out where they were coming from.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did, just playing it their world for a bit.

* * *

Chapter 7:

"So, this is the newest message. He has obviously been following me, at least, for some time. Couple that with Doujima's message, we know that someone is definitely stalking the team."

"Amon, do we have any leads, yet?" Sakaki asked, obviously worried.

Sighing almost dejectedly, he replied, "No, not yet. I went to forensics yesterday with the envelope and the contents. No fingerprints on the message. They found some partial ones on the envelope that they are going to try to match up. If we are really lucky, there was some DNA on the envelope glue. We should receive the results sometime today."

&&&

"So, Michael," Sakaki started in his normal, almost cajoling manner. "What do you know about all of this?"

"Unfortunately, I only know about as much as you do."

"Some of those pictures were kinda strange."

"Yeah. They were all hunters who had worked for the STN-J at some point. Amon told me who they each were, but I haven't found any links between any of them that could lead us to who's sending these messages."

"So you do know more than us! Ok, spill it!"

Michael sighed, annoyed with his coworker's habit of goofing off instead of actually working. When it came to researching, Sakaki was as bad as Doujima. "Amon brought that in yesterday and the two of us looked for leads most of the day. He was almost as bristly as he was last week when Doujima was late getting here."

"Amon's not telling us something." It was Robin's voice they heard, softly talking to herself as she sometimes did when trying to work a problem out.

"What do you mean?" Michael asked, as everyone turned to look at the slight girl.

"Well..." She paused, scrunching her face up in thought. "He's been far more brooding lately than normal. And a lot angrier. I don't know. Just something tells me that he's hiding something from us. Like maybe that wasn't the first message that he had received." Robin gave a small sigh. "I don't know. It's probably nothing."

"He's just upset that someone has been stalking him all this time and he never knew it," Doujima teased.

"You have good instincts, Robin," Karasuma said at almost the same time, smiling knowingly at Robin.

"Oohh! What do you know?" Now Doujima was really getting in on the conversation that was quickly gaining the feel of a gossip session.

"Nothing," was the older woman's only reply, though a mischievous twinkle was in her eye.

"Come on, Miho-chan. You can tell us..." Doujima was practically begging, giving the older woman her best puppy dog eyes.

Karasuma could barely contain her laughter. Doujima was just playing the begging little girl role far too well for her to ignore the flighty hunter. Both women abruptly stopped talking when Amon stalked into the room. Before he could say anything, though, Michael piped up.

"Amon, I got the results back from the lab. There was DNA, but I don't have a match in the database."

"Figures," he growled lowly. "Have you checked it against HQ's database? Or can you use it to find likely relatives?"

"I'm doing the first right now. I'm not sure about the second. I'll have to look into it."

"I'm going out. Tell the rest of them what research you want them to help you with, Michael." Abruptly Amon turned on his heel and left the building. The rest of the team looked at each other. Glancing about quickly, Robin got up and ran after her partner.

&&&

"Amon! Wait up!" Robin panted, having run down the stairs in her attempt to get to the basement before Amon had gotten in his car and left.

Amon paused his long strides, agitated that the girl was following him, but not particularly surprised by it either.

"Go back upstairs, Robin."

"I'm coming with you."

"No, you aren't. Go back upstairs."

Robin blinked back the hurt feelings at being left out. She had finally gained his trust, she thought, so she didn't think that he was trying to ignore her like he had when she first arrived. Instead of saying anything, she simply looked at him with the question of 'why' in her eyes. Amon didn't bother responding. Instead he got into his car, locked his doors, and drove off.

_'Where was he going that I couldn't follow?'_ was her primary thought as she waited for the elevator to take her back upstairs.

&&&

Kobari started to pour Amon his usual drink, only to have the brooding man shake his head in response.

"Coffee, please," he responded curtly. The older bartender nodded in acknowledgment.

Bringing the dark brew to him, Kobari leaned on the counter, waiting for Amon to speak.

"Have you heard from your contacts?"

"There does seem to be someone out there who is seriously after you."

"Me, or the STN-J?"

"That, I don't know."

Amon gave a low growl, his only outward indication of his frustration.

&&&

Amon paced his small apartment trying to work out the puzzle in his head. He now knew that someone was after them. Since Kobari had been able to find this out, that meant that likely the stalker was a witch. Based on the first message, he was beginning to believe that the person was after him but was going to go after one of the younger hunters. The second set of messages weren't really threatening. More likely, they were a warning to prove how close the person could get. The third message, though... what was the point of that besides to say 'look how long I've been following you'? Suddenly an idea struck, sending the hunter running out the door.

&&&

Robin was sitting on the floor, a photocopy of a picture in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other. She felt dead tired but couldn't sleep so she found herself here, at the office, working.

"Michael, have you found the dates for this one yet?" she inquired, flipping the picture around so her friend would know which one she was referring to.

"Not yet. He has some pretty high security. I can't even figure out if he's alive or not. Go to the next one," he replied distractedly.

"What are you two doing here?" asked a deep, cold voice.

Michael and Robin both look up, surprised that anyone else would be there. Seeing her handsome partner, the girl blushed and immediately looked back down at the floor.

"Well, I for one live here," came the smart-assed retort from Michael before he smiled and nodded his head in Robin's direction. "And she couldn't sleep," he continued almost sheepishly in response to Amon's glare.

Amon strode over to where his partner was sitting and squatted down beside her.

"Robin, what is this?" As he looked, he began to realize she was doing what he had thought of when he had headed to the office.

"I'm making a time line of when the other hunters in these pictures were at the STN-J." Her soft, calming voice seemed almost loud in the quiet office. "Michael said that going backwards with DNA to find the family was almost impossible, but I thought that if we could find the relationship of the pictures to the witch hunts, we might find something."

Amon was impressed with her work. She had pieces of yarn going between two copies of a picture, each picture having a date on it. The dates roughly coincided with the hunter's arrival and departure from the STN-J. She had them laid out so that they each could be seen independently but at the same time could see how the time lines overlapped.

Looking at the picture in Robin's hand, he spoke up, "He was here before me. He was killed on a hunt..." Amon paused a moment trying to remember the date. Shaking his head, he continued, "He died just after Colin arrived and before Akiyama arrived."

Robin turned to give him a bright smile as she moved her time line around to accommodate the new dateline. The three of them worked on it for some time. When his young partner fell against him, fast asleep, Amon looked up to see Michael had passed out on his keyboard. With a shake of his long mane, the normally impassive man allowed a small smile to escape as he picked the girl up and carried her to the couch in the office. Carefully, he laid her down. As an afterthought, he took her coat and laid it across her small frame before turning off the lights and claiming a chair by her for his own napping place.

&&&

Morning found the silent man back on the floor studying the time line. The clicks of someone typing was calming while he looked for as many different connections as he could find. As his coworkers straggled in, they shot curious glances his way, but kept quiet themselves.

"Amon, I think I've found something," the brown haired hacker announced, a bit of pride in his voice.

"Go on."

"Well, that first picture looks to be close to your first capture here in Japan, so I started looking at the witches that you were credited with capturing around that time. It looks like there's three possible families that this stalker could belong to."

"Really?" Robin yawned as she sat up on the couch. "How?"

"Yep. See, there's a certain amount of genetic similarity between family members. Taking the presumption that this person was a blood relative of one of the hunted witches, there are three that have enough commonality to potentially be related to our stalker. It's all a numbers game, so it's possible that he's none of these, and that is presuming that he is actually a relative. Either way, it's a good starting point."

"Good job, Michael," Amon complemented in his standard aloof manner. The teen smiled anyway knowing just how rare praise of any kind was from the man.

By the end of the day, Michael seemed to be making progress on finding the witch. Amon had tasked the other four hunters to see if there was any other witch activity so that, as a whole, they didn't fall behind on their normal tasks. It was slow and tedious work, but the eldest hunter felt better that they seemed to be making some headway in identifying the stalker.

* * *

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this little installment. Feel free to drop a line and let me know that you are reading it!


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own WHR or it's characters, nor do I make any money from them. I simply like their world and enjoy playing in it.

* * *

Chapter 8:

**_Ah, so you can take a hint. I saw you up late with Michael and Robin. The three of you looked like you were working on a school project. How cute._**

Amon growled in frustration after reading the message again. This time, the note had been left on his car. The message, for once didn't have any pictures, but this game was getting more than annoying. He didn't like people playing games with him and this witch was doing just that.

"Amon, I think we might have a hit. Obviously I could be wrong, but we might want to look into this guy." Michael had the information up about a Mizaki Takama. "It seems he was the little brother of the second person you captured. The older brother had custody so his hunt left Takama homeless."

"Do we have anything about his location now?"

"I'm working on it, but it looks like he doesn't have a permanent address."

Amon was only paying about half-attention to the young geek while he looked at the buildings that could see into their office.

"Robin." It was all he said as he grabbed his coat and headed to the elevator. It was all that needed to be said. Robin grabbed her own coat and followed. When they got off at the main floor and walked out the front gate, she looked at her partner questioningly. Once by the street, Amon looked up at the building then glanced around their surroundings. Finally, as if he had determined something, he strode across the street and across the park with Robin on his heels.

"Amon?" She was curious about where they were going but knew he would only tell her what he felt she needed to know, regardless of what she asked.

"Stay close to me, Robin." He opened the door for her then followed her into the building before leading her up the stairs.

"What are we looking for?"

"I received another note. The stalker could see us when we were in Raven's Flat working on the time line."

"So we're looking for where he might have been."

Distractedly, the older hunter nodded as he went to a window in the hallway of the floor the were on. _'Not high enough.'_

As they ascended the stairs, Amon continued to occasionally stop and look out the windows until they were on the roof. Pulling out his binoculars, he started looking towards their office.

"Amon, can I take a look?" The stoic man looked up to find his partner almost at the far end of the roof with a curious look on her face. He walked over to her and passed the binoculars to her. "Is there anything specific I should look for?"

"Michael."

As his young partner propped her elbows on the low retaining wall around the roof and adjusted the glasses, the dark hunter stood behind her trying to figure out what she had seen. They both found it at the same time. From the position they were in, they could see the large window that looked in on Michael's desk. With the binoculars, Robin could see not only his desk, but almost all of the office.

"Amon, you should see..." She stopped mid-sentence as she felt Amon lean over her and take the binoculars from her hand. The young blond began blushing as she felt Amon's chest against her back. He was leaning over her, similar to how she was leaning over the wall, so that now she was effectively stuck between the two. Robin actually couldn't move in any way without bumping into him so she didn't, her blush deepening by the second.

"Good job, Robin. I think you found it." When he looked down at her, Amon realized just how close they were and quickly stood up and took a step back. When he stepped away, Robin straightened up, but continued looking at the ground. Not wanting Amon to see how flushed her face was, she busied herself with looking for clues to the stalker's presence.

&&&

"Michael, I want you to look into surveillance cameras at the Matsuri Apartments." After looking for almost an hour, neither hunter had found anything that would indicate who this person was. Amon explained what they had been doing. Now he was hoping that Michael could find something that might tell them who they were looking for.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: No, in case you thought otherwise, I do not own WHR. I just enjoy their world and causing angst there.

* * *

Chapter 9:

**_Hmm.. So what's the little girl to you, old man? I know she's your partner, but I've watched you long enough to know that there's something more there. She lives with your former lover, though I doubt that has much, if anything, to do with how you treat her. You treat her differently from your previous partners. You get between her and your prey. You jump to her side a bit more willingly. You watch her a bit more closely, more often, than you have anyone else. Would you really be able to keep your facade of indifference if you were this close to her?_**

The message was a computer printout, just like all the others, but this time it was folded nicely in an envelope and there were no pictures. Then he saw the memory disk for a digital camera.

"Michael." The impatience in the brooding man's voice was obvious through the communicator, but Michael was too tired to notice.

"Yeah, Amon. What is it?" The hacker was barely able to suppress a yawn.

"I have another message, but this time the pictures are on a memory disk. If I brought it in, would you be able to read it?"

"Likely, but can't you?"

"I already tried. I don't have a reader for it."

"Ok, bring it in." Michael heard the click of Amon's phone disconnecting before he had even finished speaking. The young geek sighed. He likely had 10 minutes at most before the man got there.

&&&

"So what do you think we're going to find on this?" Michael asked as he was hooking up the appropriate card reader.

"Robin." Glancing at the teen next to him, Amon wondered if he should banish the boy from the room. The comment in the message about being 'this close' made even the impassive hunter concerned about what they would find.

"A..A..mon..." Michael stammered as he practically jumped away from his computer when he opened the first image.

"Kuso," Amon muttered looking at the picture of a sleeping Robin. It was obvious from the angle that the person was actually in her room. It was beautifully set up with her curled up in bed, the moonlight from the window behind her making the young witch seem to glow. Mentally, Amon squirmed. Thinking about what Robin looked like asleep was not something that was wise for him to contemplate. At that moment, it was merely a distraction from the real issue – this stalker had gotten into her room!

Quickly, Amon scanned through the rest of the pictures. He purposely avoided looking at the almost angelic girl and instead focused on looking for things that might give them clues as to who this person was. The very last 'image' was actually a document.

**_There were a few pictures that I almost left for you, but I decided to keep them to myself. Did you know that your beautiful 'daughter' sleeps in the nude? I think we both know who my target is. So, which witch dies first?_**

"Michael, I wast you to analyze these pictures." The teen turned pale, then blushed. Amon ignored him and continued speaking before the younger man could protest. "Many of them have a mirror or the window in it. See if you can find reflections of this witch. Try not to let the others see those pictures, though."

Michael nodded, still blushing. He didn't need to ask why he shouldn't let anyone else see the pictures. Somehow he felt that he should apologize to Robin for looking at them himself.

&&&

_'The witch was in her room!'_ The thought kept reverberating in his mind. Amon was running up the stairs to Robin's apartment when he heard a yelp. He got to the landing just in time to see the young blond get thrown against the wall opposite her door.

"Robin!"

She looked up at her partner's voice, her emerald eyes wide and lip trembling. "Amon..." she breathed.

"Are you all right?" the normally impassive man asked, kneeling beside his partner.

"Yes, I'm fine, but..." Robin gazed tentatively at the door to her apartment. Amon followed her gaze to see a black cat spread out with a dagger in each paw. He stood to study the sight and noticed that there was something under the body of the dead cat.

"Amon, don't..." Robin began as her partner grabbed one of the daggers and pulled it from the cat.

"What?" he asked, a bit sharper than he intended to as he began studying the dagger. When she didn't reply, he turned to find the girl staring at him in shock. "Robin?"

The younger hunter blinked several times before turning her bewildered eyes up to him. "They're warded," she whispered in awe. "That's the dagger I had grabbed. That's what threw me over here."

Amon raise an eyebrow in her direction before turning back to the cat pinned to the door. Carefully, this time, he lightly touched the next dagger. The jolt of electricity he felt caused him to jump back, cursing. Glaring at the offending cat, he lightly reached for the third. Feeling nothing he grabbed and removed it. Instinct told him that the fourth blade would jolt him as well, though he tried anyway.

"Robin, come here," he commanded, shaking the hand that had just been shocked.

Tentatively the blond walked up to stand beside her partner, not sure she wanted to know what he was thinking.

Glaring disgustedly at the cat, Amon put his hand over its torso, holding it in place.

"Robin, I want you to try removing these last two."

"Amon..." she started, her voice quivering as she began to back away. She could still feel the pain radiating through her arm from her first attempt.

With amazingly quick reflexes, he reached around her waist and pulled her to stand between himself and the door.

"It's ok, Robin. Reach slowly, palm open, for the hilt. You'll feel the electricity sooner that way and be shocked less if these two are warded against you. I don't think they are, though."

Robin looked up over her shoulder at her partner, apprehension covering her face. Nodding silently she turned and reached for one of the daggers. When she didn't feel a shock, she grabbed the blade and pulled it free. Puzzled, she looked at the dagger in her hand then back up at Amon. He nodded to her, silently indicating she should get the last one as well.

As soon as Robin had extracted the last dagger, the black cat blinked its eyes before hissing at the two hunters, causing the girl to jump, startled, back into Amon. When the cat landed, it angrily stalked away.

"It was alive?" Robin whispered to herself, confused.

Amon ignored his partner's comment and instead studied what had previously been under the supposedly dead cat.

"Robin, do you recognize this?" Amon asked, indicating the ward on the door.

Robin studied the markings carefully for some time before shaking her head. "I'm sorry, I don't. They look like something I should know, but I've never seen the runes used this way. It's probably has to do with the cat, but I'd have to do some research to figure out what it was exactly."

Pulling out his gun, Amon motioned for Robin to get behind him. Quietly, he opened her apartment door looking for signs of anyone in the flat. After checking all the rooms and assuring that the two of them were the only ones there, he relaxed his posture somewhat and re-holstered his gun.

"Robin, is there anything out of place? Anything that seems odd?"

She looked questioningly at the older hunter as she followed him into her room. "No, not that I'm aware of..."

"Are you **sure**?" he prodded as he started looking closely around her window frame, lightly running this fingers along the edge.

"No, but nothing seems wrong. Amon, what are you thinking?" Her partner's actions were beginning to bother the young witch as she watched him.

"He was here - in your room - last night."

Robin gasped, her delicate hands covering her mouth as she did. When Amon turned to face her, her emerald green eyes were wide with shock.

"How... how do you know?" Her shock was giving way to fear as the implications of what he said began to sink in.

"I received another message this morning. This time with several pictures of you sleeping."

"Of me... sleeping?" Robin could feel her face begin to flush, her uneasiness evident in her voice.

Returning to his inspection of her room, he continued on, "Michael is looking at them now."

Robin was mortified. It was bad enough that Amon had seen the pictures, and likely more of her naked body than she would have preferred, but her partner wouldn't say anything about it. Instinctively she knew that he wouldn't act any differently. Michael, though, was a different story. She had an idea that the lonesome teen might have a crush on her. Robin ignored the signs of it, but every now and again, she would catch him glancing at her in a way that she recognized as being similar to how she watched Amon. If **he** saw her naked... she really didn't want to contemplate how that would affect their relationship.

Amon glanced at her reflection in the mirror that he was inspecting and noticed her concern.

"Robin," he began, keeping an eye on her reflection while continuing to run his hands across the edge of the mirror. "There's nothing for you to be worried about. You are covered in them. I needed Michael to analyze the pictures to see if he could find a reflection of the witch in your mirror or window. No one else is going to see them."

Still blushing, Robin noticeably relaxed. Amon smirked to himself as he continued his searching.

&&&

"I don't want you going back home tonight," Amon emotionlessly stated, interrupting the silence of the car as they headed to work. He surreptitiously glanced over at the petite hunter to see her response.

Robin, who had been gazing out the passenger window, jumped slightly at the suddenness of the comment.

"What? Why?" she asked in her soft voice, confusion written plainly on her face.

"Your room was bugged."

"Bugged?" Robin felt her heart speed up a notch. If it wasn't enough that the witch had gotten into her room, he was keeping watch over her even when he wasn't. "Then where should I go?"

"I don't know yet."

The young blond's face dropped slightly. For a brief moment she had thought Amon would have her go home with him. She knew it was a silly thought as soon as it entered her mind. Her reticent partner was a good ten years older than herself. As much as she wished it were otherwise, she was sure he thought her just a child, and most likely an annoying one at that.

"Amon?"

"Hmm?"

"I've been wondering..." the quiet girl began, unsure whether or not to ask her question. "Doujima's message wasn't the first message, was it?"

Robin watched closely for Amon's response. She noticed a quick change in his eye, but couldn't decipher it before he turned to glare at her.

"It was not." His terse response told her he wouldn't say any more.

"I thought so," she almost whispered as she turned to look back out the window, missing the curious look Amon gave her.

&&&

Amon paced the office, trying to figure out what to do. His uncharacteristic action drew concerned glances from his colleges, though he didn't notice. It seemed a mixed blessing that the stalker had chosen to go after Robin. She was the only one of the four who had awakened and she had a powerful craft at that. He had to wonder, though, if the stalker knew that he had targeted the only witch of the group who could actually fight back with her powers.

_'Or maybe he knows that of all the people he could target, harming Robin is the one thing that could break you,'_ a voice sneered in the dark recesses of his brain. Amon growled lowly before leaving the room in a swirl of black.

Robin looked up and began to gather her things to follow, but he was gone before she could even take a step. With a sigh and a slight shake of her head, the young witch sat back down. She knew when her partner was like this, it was better to leave him be.

* * *

A/N: As always, feedback is always welcome - both the good and the bad. Thank you most kindly to those who have been regularly reviewing! It reminds me that there really are people out there reading this. =)


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Thanks to 'A New Witch' over at the MuseBunny for the naming of this story. I forgot to mention it before :/

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own WHR or it's characters, nor do I make any money from them. I simply like their world and enjoy playing in it.

* * *

Chapter 10:

"Doujima!" he practically barked, causing the woman to jump and nearly fall out of her chair. Michael snickered until Amon's death glare turned his way, immediately scattering all amusing thoughts.

It was 19.00. Amon had come back far later than he had intended to. The brooding man hadn't come up with any solutions. Seeing the blond woman dozing and no sign of Robin had pushed his nerves too far.

Blinking dumbly, Doujima glanced around the room, pointedly ignoring the ominous man before her.

"Hey, Michael. Hasn't Robin come back yet?" she asked in her sing-song bubbly voice.

Without so much as a pause, Michael responded, "Nope, not yet."

"What do you mean 'back yet'?" Amon growled.

Doujima visibly shrunk into her chair under the older hunter's withering gaze. "Well, she went to Harry's shortly after you left. I'm only here because she asked me if she could stay at my place tonight. Since you were the one who decided she couldn't go home, and you're back, you can take her. I'm tired of waiting."

Doujima started gathering her things, paying little attention when Amon told Michael to call Harry's. Just as she was about to hit the button to call the elevator, she was stopped by a loud "Kuso!" followed by Amon bellowing her name to get back to the office. Sulkily, the ditzy blond trudged back, fully expecting Amon to yell at her about something. Almost anything would have been more expected than what she saw.

Both men were looking at Amon's computer. Michael was slowly rocking back and forth in his chair, hands covering his mouth and tears threatening to escape his shocked eyes. Amon was standing, his chair halfway across the room behind him. His fists were clenched tight and he was visibly shaking with anger. Hesitantly the younger hunter crept over to the foreboding man to see what was on his computer screen.

In one corner of the computer screen was what looked to be a live feed of Robin. Her wrists were bound together and held above her head by what looked like a meat hook. She was ankle deep in water and looked to be absolutely terrified.

"Amon...?" Doujima began, concern leaking into her voice.

"He's got her." With those three words, Amon felt the world tilt slightly as various emotions flew through his system. The three co-workers stood in stunned silence, each attempting to cope with their own emotions.

A shrill 'ding', followed by an IM window popping up onto the computer elicited a terrified yelp from the young woman and pulled all three out of their shock.

**_I'm surprised, friend, that you didn't keep a closer eye on the little one once you knew the game. Then again, it wouldn't be the first time that you let your 'job' prevent you from seeing the big picture. How many witches have you killed? How many children have you left with no one to care for them? How many ways have you or your teammates tortured them?_**

There was a long pause before the window disappeared and then slowly faded back to view with a new message.

**_How many of them can she handle before she breaks?_**

After a few more seconds, the entire monitor went black.

"Oh God..." Doujima whispered, her facing having gone ashen. Small, choked sobs could be heard from Michael's direction.

"Michael," Amon snapped, heedless of the teen's current trauma. "Find out where that message came from. Doujima, call Karasuma and Sakaki and get them in here – **now**."

&&&

Dazedly, Robin took in her surroundings. She had no idea where she was or even how she got there. The last thing she remembered was walking to Harry's. The next moment she was here, wrists and ankles bound. The room she was in was small and humid. Moss looked to be growing in places on the walls, likely fed by the seemingly constant sheen of water that flowed down them. The water at her feet was uncomfortably cold.

Cautiously, the young fire witch tried to burn away her restraints. After several attempts, each successively stronger that the last, she gave up, noticing that the bindings didn't look like her fire even touched them. She tried the wall, only to find that her powers were blocked there as well. Each failed attempt caused the young blond to feel more panicky.

"Your flame won't work here," came a soft, disembodied voice. "The area is warded against you." Quickly, Robin looked around, trying to find the source. After several moments, she noticed a flicker off to one side. Looking in that direction, she saw a young man slowly fade into focus.

The short, lanky man chuckled at her wide eyed look of amazement. "The invisibility craft," he explained.

"What do you want with me?" she tentatively asked, desperately trying not to sound as afraid as she felt.

"What do I want with **you**?" he playfully mocked as he pretended to think about the question. "Explicitly, nothing. I have no qualms with you.

"Now, what I **want** is different. I want to torture Amon in the same way he has tortured me and countless others. To do that, I need you. I **am** sorry. You seem like such a nice girl." His jovial smile turned mockingly apologetic.

"But... Amon doesn't torture people. I don't understand," Robin whispered, confusion creeping into her eyes.

"Yes he does. You haven't seen it. Whether by luck or design, you haven't seen it." He stepped up to the obviously befuddled girl and caressed her cheek lightly with the back of his hand. "I am truly sorry. You don't deserve this, but then again, none of his victims do." With that, the young man walked behind her and left.

&&&

To say Amon was pissed was an understatement. He sat at his computer glaring at the screen. The dark, brooding man blamed himself for this situation. The stalker was after him, so that alone made her capture his fault. Add to that, though, he **knew** Robin was the target and he still let her out of his sight. If only he had stayed, or even taken her with him...

_'You were starting to crack,'_ his conscious reminded him. _'You needed to get out of there to regain your control.' _

Abruptly the hunter stood and headed toward the elevator.

"Michael, call me if you get anything. I'm heading out."


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: No, in case you thought otherwise, I do not own WHR. I just enjoy their world and causing angst there.

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Chapter 11:

"Amon, have you had any luck finding Miss Robin?" the kindly bartender asked, worry tinting his voice.

The silent hunter merely shook his head, still lost in his own thoughts. Cautiously, he looked up at the other man. "Have you heard anything from your contacts?" This time it was Master's turn to shake his head glumly.

The two men sat there for some time, both thinking about the missing fire witch. Both men were startled out of their ponderings when Amon's communicator went off.

"Yeah."

"Amon, I think you better get over here," Michael sounded on edge, causing the hunter to immediately get up and fumble for the cash to pay for his drink. Kobari waved him off, allowing the other to run back to Raven's Flat while asking the caller what was going on. "It's better if you just see it."

The dark, brooding man got back to the office in record time, though no one would guess it by his appearance.

"Ok, Michael. What's going on?"

"This came in for you." Michael held out a yellow envelope to Amon, who responded merely with a raised eyebrow as he took the package. "And," Michael continued hesitantly, "You have an e-mail that came from the same place the video feed had."

Warily, the older man sat in front of his terminal and brought up his mail. He wasn't at all surprised to find that their resident hacker had been right. After the previous video, Amon had instructed him to set up something that would let him know if anyone connected from that address again and monitor what they did. Scanning e-mail headers was an easy and logical addition.

_**I forgot to mention...**_

_**The water at her ankles is rising, though you may not realize it yet. The game ends when you rescue her, or she drowns.**_

Amon cursed lowly in response. "I don't suppose we know who sent the package, do we?"

"Nope, 'fraid not."

"Have you pin-pointed where the messages are coming from?"

"I'm getting closer, but no. I've gotten it down to a 20 kilometer radius, but I can't seem to peg the signal any better yet."

The stolid man simply nodded his head, turning his attention to the package in his hand. His name was written in the same style as his previous letters from the stalker. A thorough look over the envelope yielded no clues, so he carefully opened it and dumped the contents on the table.

Michael's intake of breath was audible as Amon picked up Robin's pendant and the letter that were inside. Pocketing the gem inside his trench coat, his face never betraying the anger broiling just under the surface, he turned his attention to the message.

_**Here is a small memento to remember Robin by. Your own personal reminder of your failure to protect your own. I do feel a bit guilty torturing her, but you deserve this. Of everyone I have ever seen you with, she has been the only one to move you, so this sweet, naive little girl will have to do. **_

_**If you want to check up on her progress, tune in at 18.00 for your own personal video.**_


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Warning: This chapter contains reference to extreme violence. It is not graphical in nature, but I tried to capture the emotions of the other characters who 'witnessed' it. If you are particularly sensitive to this, I suggest that you skip from the second set of & to just after the fourth &.

* * *

Chapter 12:

"So, Miss Robin – you don't mind if I call you that, do you? What shall we do today? I was thinking, maybe we should progress in the same order that your partner did with his victims." The young man appeared to be debating with himself as to what to do. Robin merely glanced at the man unsure of how to respond and deciding it would be better not to.

&&&

It was 17.55 and the whole team was gathered around Amon's desk. Michael fidgeted nervously, unsure if he would be able to handle what he saw, regardless of what it was. Doujima sat off to one side so she could see what happened, but could easily turn away completely. She knew enough of how Solomon handled their own prisoners to know there was a good chance that whatever they saw likely wouldn't be pretty. Sakaki sat backwards in his chair, with his head propped on the back of it. He looked to be rather unruffled by this, for which Miho could only be jealous of. She herself could feel enough tension in the room to have her more than a little worried, had she not already been.

At exactly 18.00 a window popped up on Amon's monitor. They could easily see Robin, as well as much of the person in the room with her. Amon immediately looked to see where the water had risen to. Suppressing a shudder, he noted that it was at about 10 cm, which meant the kidnapper planned on dragging this out.

"Amon, what is that in his hand?" Sakaki quietly asked, his voice betraying the calmness he exuded.

The words were barely out of his mouth before Robin screamed in pain.

&&&

As soon as the baton touched her, Robin could feel the electricity flow through her. It was quick, but the pain was almost unbearable.

"Please..." she horsely begged, looking up at her captor as he moved to stand more directly in front of her.

"Please? Please?" he derided, a feral glow coming to his eyes. "I'm sure many of his victims have said that in the past, but if you hope for Amon to hear you, you'll have to be louder."

He snickered before shocking her abdomen with the electric baton.

&&&

"Oh my God..." Karasuma whispered, covering her mouth with one hand, while holding her stomach with the other. At the sound of retching, she looked over to see Michael leaning over the garbage pail before running towards the washrooms. Doujima had her face buried in Sakaki's shoulder, sobbing quietly. Sakaki's eyes had gone wide in shock, though he seemed to not be able to look away from the computer monitor. Amon looked as collected as always, but she knew him well enough to know that below his calm facade he was anything but.

Amon could barely keep himself composed. As soon as he saw the baton in the man's hand, he had felt his stomach churn. Robin's dress was bound to be wet from the water that she was standing in, which would increase the the pain from the electric shock. Silently he prayed to whatever god that would listen that her torture would be short, but after 10 minutes of screaming on her part, and more and more maniacal laughter on the torturer's part, Amon was sure that even the gods were against him. Each scream was heart wrenching. He no longer saw what was happening, he was staring at some space past the computer, but the usually impassive hunter felt each scream tear at him and knew that this was all to torture him as well.

Finally there was a pause in the screaming, bringing Amon's attention to the screen. Robin hung limply, shuddering slightly, while her captor stalked around her muttering something just below Amon's hearing. There were holes in her dress, showing glimpses of the burns from the electrical shocks. He clenched his fists so tightly they hurt.

"So, Amon. I hope you are watching what this poor girl is going through. Now maybe you have some idea of what it feels like to stand on the sidelines," the man calmly stated from his position behind Robin while playing with her hair. "Then again, maybe you really don't care about anyone but yourself." With that, he disappeared. While Amon blinked at the computer monitor, he frantically tried to determine if the man had really just disappeared or if it was a trick of the camera.

He barely noticed that Robin said something. He couldn't hear her words, but he saw her lips move as she spoke.

&&&

"Invisibility." Michael's calm voice belied the inner turmoil he felt. "I don't know what she means, but that's what she said."

Amon nodded his head as if Michael was confirming what he already knew. "She was telling us that his craft is invisibility."

"Ok, so what does **that** tell us?" Sakaki inquired.

"Not much. Sakaki, look up what hunts happened when Maya and Gretchen worked here. Specifically which hunts that either of them participated in. Michael, now that we have a face, check and see what you can find out about this guy," the dark hunter commanded before gracefully rising and crossing the office to the conference room.

Quietly Karasuma followed. "What are you thinking?" she queried, watching as the brooding hunter brought up a copy of the video and fast forwarded it to where the captor was taunting Robin.

"He said something about victims of the past. He was meaning my victims. This is personal between he and I. Maya and Gretchen could both control electricity. I'm wondering if he's mimicking powers he has seen our craft users use."

"But even if he's doing that, how does that help us?" Doujima piped in, having nothing else to do but follow Karasuma into the conference room.

"Between knowing his face, and knowing who he could have possibly witnessed that had an electrokinetic craft, we should get a better idea of who he is, which may give us a way to find him," the older woman patiently explained while Amon absentmindedly nodded his head in agreement.

"There..." Though the somber hunter had been talking to himself, he got the attention of both of his colleagues.

"What did you find?"

"If you look up here," Amon explained, pointing towards the top of his monitor, "you'll see that there is a small drainage hole. That's where the water is coming in. It seems that the water is coming in from other places as well, but that is at least one of the places."

"So where would we find something like that?" Dojima asked while Karasuma leaned in to try to get a better look.

"I don't know, but that is what we are going to have to look for."

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading. Please let me know if you think that this chapter should cause the ratings to go up. I thought long and hard about it, and asked several others. It was deemed that a warning of what to potentially ignore would suffice.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own WHR or it's characters, nor do I make any money from them. I simply like their world and enjoy playing in it.

* * *

"Hmm... looks like it rained last night," her captor cheerfully commented as he waded through the water towards Robin. "I suppose that it's a good thing the electric shock was yesterday. We wouldn't be able to have nearly as much fun with it today without taking the chance of killing you."

Robin, herself, didn't make any comment. Instead she merely tried to suppress the shudder she felt and silently prayed that today's torture wouldn't be anything like the previous day's. She wasn't sure she could take the physical, little less the emotional, pain of that again.

"I would have to say that this next power was one of the most intriguing ones to me." He pulled out a large knife and held it up for her inspection. "I never figured out how they did it, but they were able to cut people without any weapons that I could see. They sliced long, wide bloody gashes in the person, leaving them to be picked up by that group you call 'Factory'. I suppose that this will have to do, though."

Ripping Robins sleeve, he began cutting long lines down her arm. All Robin could do was close her eyes and pray that this would end soon.

&&&

Amon was dutifully at his monitor at 18.00, just in time to see the kidnaper taunting Robin about having seen someone slice people open. There was only one person that he had ever known of who could use the air element like that and had worked at the Tokyo branch. Watching, he realized that the man had likely lost track of time with his ramblings, which also gave Amon more time to look at the surroundings. He noticed that the flow of water must have increased it's pace since it was now almost to Robin's knees. Did that mean that the water level was not actually being manipulated by the man?

The muffled whimpers from Robin brought him back from his dark thoughts to what was happening before him. It was obvious that the young witch was trying to be brave as she bit her lower lip to keep from crying out, though tears coursed down her cheeks all the while. The thought of this only made Amon's heart wrench more. Slowly her captor continued drawing the knife across her skin, tearing at her clothes, leaving long, ragged lines in it's wake. Every time she flinched, the older hunter did as well. Though he felt the sympathetic pains of her ordeal, he knew that hers was much worse.

When the sadist finally tired of torturing the now limp girl, he turned to the camera to speak to Amon once again.

"Isn't this fun, Amon?" he gleefully asked. "All this time, though you didn't have a power, you sat by and ordered your team members to do this to the witches you captured. Did you enjoy watching them as much as I am enjoying this? Are you enjoying it now?" The man cackled before disappearing again.

Closing his eyes, the dark hunter took a deep breath, releasing it slowly in an attempt to help calm himself.

&&&

"So...?" Karasuma began, not knowing exactly how to phrase the question. Amon had expressly forbidden anyone else from being in the room when the video feed came on. Sakaki and Doujima had argued with him that they had the right to see Robin just as much as he did, but in the end they both backed down. Their foreboding leader was not going to change his mind on this one. He didn't feel that they needed to see whatever humiliation or torture Robin was being put through – it was not the way they should remember her, nor was it something that they should have to witness. He would let them know what was found and what they could see.

"It was better than yesterday. He rambled longer, so I was able to get more about the room she's being kept in. She's still with us." He paused briefly during which time Karasuma nodded in understanding.

"We need to look for abandoned sewers. He doesn't have control of the water leaking in. It looks clean, though, so maybe drainage tunnels or cisterns."

Again, Karasuma nodded. It was obvious to her how much this was wearing on her colleague. He didn't look like he had slept, and it was questionable that he had even gone home during this time. As much as the woman wanted to ask him how he was doing, she knew it was likely better not to. If her assumptions about the lead hunter were correct, the results weren't likely to be good.

"I'll go tell the others and we'll add that into our search parameters and see how much that helps us narrow things down." Walking out of the room, she paused to look back at him. "We'll find her, Amon."

After a few moments, long enough to know that she was no longer within earshot, he responded. "I know. We have to."

&&&

"So, where are we on this? Michael?" Amon was all business. It has been less than an hour since the last video, but the team was now reassembled so they could start looking into whatever information their leader had gleaned from it.

"Well," the computer geek nervously began. "Everything points to the culprit being Takama. The pictures that I was able to find of him were a bit dated but they match this guy. After a bit of poking around, I found that his DNA does match that of what was found on the envelope that one time."

"You said you had checked all the databases," Doujima accused the boy.

"I did. This didn't come from one of our normal databases." He looked at the young woman over his glasses, hoping that she was getting his meaning and would drop the topic.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, finally understanding what Michael was hinting at after several moments of glaring at him.

"So, we've got a target. We've got a motive – he saw us take his brother when he was very young. Sakaki and Doujima, how are you doing with narrowing down where he might be?"

"Not so good," Sakaki began. "There are tons of underground tunnels throughout the city, and half seem to fall into Michael's 20 kilometer radius."

"Though with what Karasuma was just telling me, we might have a bit more luck," Doujima added.

"Amon? It might be helpful to let them see the room, especially if you could see more of it or a different angle of it," the older woman cautiously interjected.

The brooding hunter merely nodded in response.

&&&

Chin cupped in his hand, ruffled, black hair hanging in his face, Amon looked to be asleep. Unfortunately, he was far from sleeping. He had already broken up the video, giving the first part to Michael to see if he could clear up some of the sound. He had given it to Sakaki and Doujima as well, but now he was going through the video again to see if there was anything else that could be gleaned from it.

Rubbing his eyes, the brooding hunter leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms across his chest. Scanning videos was not something that he wanted to be doing. He wanted to be doing something that felt more productive, but he knew that right now, this was the best thing for him to do. They didn't have any real leads as to where this person was hiding Robin, and wandering the streets would really just be a waste of resources. Sighing in frustration, Amon rewound the recording to listen again to the portion that he had just missed.

When the kidnapper was just about to start cutting into Robin was when he heard it – a sound in the background. Startled, the hunter sat up, rewound the video again, turned up the volume, and listened again. Though faint, he could almost swear he heard the horn of a subway car.

"Amon!" Michael yelled, running into the conference room where their leader had hidden himself. "You have to hear this... I think I heard something in the background!"

"The subway," the hunter immediately commented, still somewhat dazed from the realization. His mask was still firmly in place, so Michael merely frowned at his response.

"You already knew?" he questioned, the hurt tone in his voice obvious to the normally stoic man.

"I just realized it myself."

Michael glared at him, unsure if he really believed the man or not. Amon wasn't normally one to keep information to himself regarding a case, but this was obviously a different situation.

"Here, listen to this. Does it sound like what you heard?" Amon held the headset out to the youth while rewinding the video yet again.

Begrudgingly, Michael took the headset and began listening to the deranged ramblings of the man. Within seconds his blue eyes popped wide open. "This is it! Can I have a copy of this, it's far cleaner than the one that I got."

With a quick nod of his head, Amon got up and headed out to the main room to give the news to the others.


	14. Chapter 14

"Where are you, Robin?" he muttered into the dark, rainy sky. Amon had sent the team home to get some much needed sleep, assuring them that she wouldn't die overnight. He hoped it was true. They likely didn't believe him, but they were getting cranky and sloppy from lack of sleep. _Then again, maybe it is yourself who is cranky_. The reserved man smirked slightly at that thought. He had barely slept since his partner had disappeared, and he couldn't sleep now.

It had been a little more than a week since the girl was kidnapped, and they were quickly running out of time. With as much as Robin had been through, he was somewhat surprised that she was still alive. From what he could tell, Takama hadn't done anything to clean or bandage any of the wounds he had inflicted on her. Amon was positive the man hadn't bothered to reset any of the bones he had broken four days earlier.

So far, that one was the worst of the tortures that Amon had witnessed, aside from the electrocution on the first day. The sadist had complained that there had been too much rain of late and it was forcing him to change his plans. That day he had slowly and methodically broken her limbs. Both of Robin's legs were easily shattered. Her arms were broken in several places as well, but the man had seemed to deem that to be too cruel and stopped after only two breaks before moving to her fingers. The other tortures were bad, but the bones would have to all be re-broken to be set properly, and that would almost be more painful than the first time.

Pushing his soaked, black hair out of his eyes, the weary hunter tried not to think about the rain. It had rained most of the day. The weatherman was predicting an almost constant downpour for the next week. As fast as her cell was filling now, Amon guessed that Robin only had another day or so before she drowned. Everyone had searched the area that Michael had narrowed the computer signal to, starting with places that seemed most likely based on the precious few clues they had received, but still nothing. Even after figuring out which train the horn was associated with, and using that to calculate a more specific search area, they didn't find anything that would lead to the young witch or her tormentor.

He was just about to continue walking when something caught his eye. Critically scanning the store across the street, he saw what had gotten his attention – Robin's captor. He was in line to, of all things, buy groceries. After blinking several times and reconfirming to himself that his mind wasn't making this up, Amon quickly pulled out his phone.

"Michael?"

"Amon? Aren't you supposed to be sleeping?" Michael asked groggily.

"Michael, wake up. Can you track my signal?"

"Yes, loud and clear. What's up?"

"I've found Takama. I'm going to trail him and see where that leads. Do not let **anyone **call me for any reason, but track me as best as you can. This is likely the best shot we are going to get."

As soon as Amon mentioned Robin's name, the hacker was fully alert and typing. He had secretly watched pieces of the videos to see how Robin was doing and knew that time was running very close. That day's video had shown the water nearing the top of Robin's shoulders. He quickly put a block on Amon's phone so that all calls to it would get re-routed to the office. At the same time, he started up a mapping program that would allow him to easily follow the somber hunter's route.

&&&

"Hey, man. What's up?" Sakaki asked, yawning as he looked over Michael's shoulder. Michael jerked, surprised that he hadn't heard his friend enter the office.

"Amon's got a lead..."

"Well, then why aren't you calling everyone? We need to get out there!" the young hunter eagerly interrupted.

Michael glared at his comrade before taking a deep breath. "Because, he is following the bastard. If any of you showed up, you'd alert the guy to his presence."

"Amon **is** stealthy like that..." Sakaki dejectedly conceded. "But isn't there something we can do?"

"No, not really. Other than watch the map and be ready to get help if he needs it." Neither boy liked the idea of doing nothing, but they also both knew that if anyone could stalk this guy, it would be their lead hunter. The best thing that they could do was hope and pray.

&&&

It was beginning to seem like Takama was aimlessly wandering around town. The man was obviously being paranoid, going blocks to simply walk back up a parallel road and turn down a third that crossed over both. Amon knew that the stalker had no idea he was being followed. The hunter surmised that the rain must be preventing him from turning invisible and thus causing the paranoia.

Mentally, Amon cursed his prey. He wanted nothing better than to grab the man and kill him, but that wouldn't get Robin back. Instead, he promised himself that when his partner was safe he would take his own personal revenge.

After roughly half an hour, Takama glanced around. Assuring himself that nothing was amiss, he slipped through a service door that lead to an underground maze. Silently, Amon followed, careful to stay far enough back that his entrance wouldn't be noticed. The tunnels themselves were poorly lit and humid. A few minutes into the tunnels he heard the unmistakable sound of the subway rumbling by. Amon evilly smirked to himself, realizing that the man may actually be leading him to Robin.

&&&

Takama had an uneasy feeling. It had started while he was buying groceries and seemed to get worse as time went on. He knew it was ridiculous, but it felt like someone was watching him. The man shrugged the thought off. Likely he was just being paranoid with all the rain. The rain didn't stop him from becoming invisible, but at the same time, it would pool and drip off of him, just like it normally would, rendering the trick almost useless.

Reaching his destination, he glanced around quickly, mostly out of nervousness, then passed his hand over the spot. On the wall, a small ward glowed brightly, signaling that he was recognized just before the wall's invisible door opened. With one last glance, he slipped into the room on the other side.

A quick flash of awe struck Amon as he lunged for the door, hoping to get inside before it shut. Though his movement was almost soundless, a slight rustle of his cloak alerted his prey to his presence. Takama dropped the bag in his hands, preparing to become invisible, but before he did, Amon was able to grab the young man. Invisible or not, once Amon had him, the stalker wasn't able to get away.

"Where is Robin?" he growled.

"You'll never find her," the disembodied voice of his captive responded.

"You can tell me where she is, or I can torture you like you did her." As he spoke, the hunter moved one hand to find the other's throat, clutching it as if to choke him. Leaning in towards where the man's ear likely was, Amon whispered menacingly, "And unlike you, I was actually trained how to torture someone. I can make what you have been putting that poor girl through this past week look like nothing." The hunter felt his captive shudder involuntarily as he blinked in and out of existence. "It's your choice," he began, tightening his grip on the man's neck. "Where is she?"

Amon's question was met with silence. Looking around, the dark hunter noticed the rope ladder rolled up on the floor. Dragging Robin's torturer over to it, he was able to tell that the rope was actually bolted to the floor, indicating that the door to Robin's cell was likely near. Slowly Amon continued putting pressure on his captive's windpipe. The effect was interesting, to say the least. As the man struggled to breathe more, he flickered in and out of sight, staying visible longer and longer with each blink.

"You know, you kept talking about me hurting people," Amon began, his low voice coming out as little more than a menacing whisper. "But you are the one who sat here and enjoyed torturing someone who didn't deserve it. I wonder how long **you** could handle it."

In a smooth, quick movement, Amon turned, pulling the man with him towards the counter while simultaneously changing his hold on his captive to be covering his mouth and holding him tightly. Assured that Takama wasn't going anywhere, Amon picked up the electric baton and held it up in front of them long enough for the other man to register what it was. Then Amon shocked him, causing the smaller man to scream and flail, trying to get away from the baton and Amon any way that he could. After several seconds, Amon turned off the device.

"Now, let's try this again. Where. Is. Robin?"

"She's in the cavern below us," Takama wheezed, trying to regain his breath. "You'll have to turn loose of me so that I can trip the ward."

"I don't think so," Amon answered darkly. "I'm not letting you go. Trip the ward, and I might put this thing away."

Shuddering, the terrified man slowly inched his way to the wall near the rope ladder. While Amon let the man lead, he didn't loosen his grip. Not wanting to anger the dark hunter, Takama pointed to a place low on the wall before he kneeled. As soon as he was low enough, the man passed his hand over the ward and again, a previously invisible door came into view on the floor. Swiftly, Amon pulled the door open. Glancing in, he could see Robin well enough to know that it was her. Without a second thought, he moved the man into a choke hold and knocked him out.

Before Takama had even hit the floor, Amon had slipped his coat off and kicked the ladder through the hole in the floor. Jumping through the hole was instinctive, as was the string of curses when he hit the frigid water below. He quickly realized that hypothermia might be a bigger issue for his partner than any of the injuries she had endured this past week. A moment of panic passed when he looked towards her and noticed that she had no reaction to his appearance or voice.

Robin's head was tilted to the side and a bit forward, much like she tended to do when she dozed off in his car. As he sloshed through the chest deep water towards her, he noted that she was still breathing, despite the fact that the water was lapping at her chin and she continued to have no response to his calling her name.

"Robin. Robin, wake up!" Amon's voice was tinged with desperation as he gently caressed the girl's cheek, hoping to rouse her while he tried to figure how to best get her out of this place. Remembering that she had originally had her legs bound, Amon dove below the water to cut her free. He was instantly glad he had when he found that they were actually tied to a bolt in the floor. On his way back up, he must have brushed up against her, because when he surfaced, she was screaming in pain.

"Shhh. Shhh... It's ok, Robin. I'm here. It's over," he tried to calm the girl, and himself.

"Amon?" Robin dazedly whispered. She looked at him, but it was obvious that her eyes were refusing to focus.

"Yes, it's me. We're getting you out," he calmly replied, wiping away the tears that had started dripping down her cheeks.

"Don't leave me," she whimpered, suddenly afraid.

"I'm not going to. I'm right here." Amon critically studied the girl before him, and his surroundings. She was so battered and bruised, he wasn't sure what the best option for removing her was.

"Robin, are you still with me?" Meekly, the young girl nodded her head and mumbled something that sounded like 'yes'. "Good. I need to cut the ropes holding your wrists. I'm going to hold on to you so you don't need to worry about standing or staying afloat, ok?" Again, a faint nod and soft 'um humm' for a response. "This is likely going to hurt. I don't know how to get you out without hurting you, but I'm going to try my best."

Robin turned her face up towards his, the fear and pain showing clearly. "I trust you."

Trying not to jostle her any more than necessary, Amon wrapped one arm around the young hunter's lower back, holding her close while he cut the bindings. Her pitiful whimpers of pain tugged at him, twisting the guilt he felt even more. He could feel her trying not to cry out as he slowly lowered her arms. When her muscles spasmed, she couldn't hold back the screech of pain before she went completely limp in his arms.

"Robin?" Amon asked, panicked. He reached up to feel her pulse. She was still alive, but the pain had been so excruciating, she had passed out. Amon could feel his own desperation setting in. She was too broken to help in her escape, and too broken for one man to get her out without causing more damage. Sighing, he took one last look at the girl before making his decision.

Amon closed his eyes, and concentrated. First he concentrated on clearing his mind, then on listening for any indication of anyone being close by. Satisfied that there would be no witnesses, he slowly pulled his power to him. Ever so carefully, he released just enough of his craft to wrap his partner and himself and lift their feet off of the floor, then just as carefully, glided slowly toward the rope ladder. He knew that the camera was there. He knew exactly where it was, or more precisely, knew what of the room it showed, and he made sure to keep his back to it.

The reserved hunter was taking a huge chance by doing this. No one knew that his powers had awoken, not even Zaizan. It was probably his most carefully guarded secret, but, he decided, the broken girl in his arms was worth the risk. Releasing a little more of his power, he wrapped her tighter in it's protection before allowing the two of them to float upwards and through the hole.


	15. Chapter 15

"Amon? Amon!"

The brooding hunter could hear his team yelling for him, but they had yet to find where he was. Without Takama's help, he had no way of opening the near invisible door from the inside. Roughly, Amon nudged the unconscious man with his booted toe. He had already tired of yelling at his co-workers through the cinder block wall and was now simply on the phone with Karasuma telling her when they sounded closer and when they sounded farther away.

"Is there nothing you can do on your side?" the brown haired woman asked again, obviously annoyed.

"Don't you think that I would have if I could?" Amon replied tersely. If playing 'Marco Polo' with Sakaki and Doujima wasn't bad enough, Karasuma's attitude was making him want to shoot something. Takama was looking like a very good target.

"Can't you wake Robin? I'm sure that she could figure out the ward Takama left..."

"For the last time, I'm not waking Robin. She's unconscious from the pain of her injuries. I couldn't even move her to the door to be able to look at it if I wanted to."

"You got her out of the hole," the other woman snapped, irked that her co-worker cut her off mid-sentence yet again.

"Yes, and I only did that because she likely would have drowned by now and was starting to suffer from hyperthermia. Who knows what damage I added to her injuries by doing that," the normally reserved man snarled.

"Uhnn... My head," Takama moaned as he slowly started coming around.

Quickly, Amon grabbed the man before he could disappear on him.

"How do we get out of here?" the hunter demanded.

"Ah," he snickered. "That is the question, Amon, isn't it?"

Glaring at his still half dazed captive, Amon pointedly glanced towards the electric baton. "You can tell me how, or we can have another round until you do."

Takama visibly gulped. Coming to full realization of where he was, and that no, he hadn't been dreaming that he'd been caught, the man looked around wildly, trying to find a way out of the dark foreboding man's grip.

"If I tell you, what will you do to me?"

"Far less than I would if you didn't tell me," was the sardonic reply.

&&&

Doujima's screech of terror brought everyone running. Amon merely glared at the woman on the other side of the now open slab of concrete.

"There really was a door there?" she asked herself aloud, not quite sure she could believe what she was seeing. None of the team had slept much and she knew that she herself was beginning to see things.

"Where's the paramedics?" the lead hunter barked. He, too, was feeling the affects of the lack of sleep. The piercing noise that had greeted his opening of the door threatened to shred what little control he had left.

"They're coming," Sakaki interjected, sliding around the corner in his haste to catch up with Doujima. "Michael's already briefed them on Robin's injuries."

Amon nodded absentmindedly before looking at the rookie hunter. "If this door closes again, blast it open." With that he stalked back into the room and seated himself by his partner.

&&&

"You did the right thing, Sir," the EMT commented as he checked Robin's body temperature. Amon had already removed her clothes as much as he could without having to move her once she was on the floor in the room above her cell and wrapped her in his coat. There hadn't been much else in the room that he could use to try to warm the girl up. "She seems to be warming up nicely. From what I can tell, it was definitely worth the risk of further injuring her. She's stable right now. The doctors will be able to tell you more once they've checked her out."

The paramedic wasn't paying much attention to the hunters, who were each in their own little world and only half paying attention to him. Amon was leaning against a wall, wishing that there had been time for him to inflict some payback on Takama before Factory had shown up. Doujima sobbed quietly into Sakaki's shoulder while he held on to her tightly. Karasuma paced nervously around the small room, unsure how to release her own pent up emotions.

Only Amon had known how badly their youngest member was hurt. The sight that greeted them had shaken the entire team. Though she was covered from her neck down by Amon's coat, Robin's skin was so pale it was almost blue. The bruises and cuts that marred her face hinted at deeper, more serious injuries below. Initially, Karasuma had payed attention to the medics, but when they had pulled the coat away to check her vitals, the sight had forced her to turn away. If she had been surprised by the girl's face, she didn't know the words to describe the revulsion and shock that assaulted her with that brief glimpse.

"Everyone, go home. Get some sleep. We're done here," Amon warily commanded, pulling the rest of the team out of their thoughts. The medics had gotten Robin on a gurney and were wheeling her out, Amon close on their heels.

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A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long to get out. The ending is just not flowing well onto paper. Hopefully this met everyone's expectations even though it's so short. And as always, feel free to let me know what you think, good or bad.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I do not own WHR or it's characters, nor do I make any money from them. I simply like their world and enjoy playing in it.

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When the paramedics arrived at Takama's hideout, they were surprised to see how battered Robin was. It had only taken a glare from Amon for them to stop asking questions about how he had rescued her. Luckily, the rest of the team hadn't asked any questions either, so he didn't have to explain (or evade) how he had gotten her out of that hole.

As a whole, the team had wanted to stay by her side. Karasuma knew that they were all hoping that the girl would wake soon, but each time she held Robin's hand, she knew that it would be a long time before she did. The brunette could feel the pain the young blond was in – an agonizing pain that she couldn't escape even in her unconscious state. The woman tried telling the doctors, repeatedly, but they kept saying that until the patient regained consciousness and they could assess her pain, they couldn't increase the pain killers.

When Karasuma finally broke down begging them to do something, Amon stepped in. The doctors were from Solomon, but even after arguing with them and offering to give them access to her records himself, they refused to believe that the woman's empathy could tell them more than their little machines could.

In frustration, Amon had left. He hadn't even gotten to the end of the hall before he had heard his partner's blood curdling scream.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Sakaki was in near panic when the lead hunter ran back into the room. Karasuma was trying to calm the boy down while Doujima was wiping the tears and sweat from Robin's cheeks.

"What happened?" he had asked wearily, anger and concern lacing his words.

Doujima looked to Karasuma who shrugged. "I'm not completely sure. Sakaki fell asleep. I don't think he even touched her, but he slumped against the bed... I guess he jostled it enough..." She looked at Amon, obviously at a loss to explain it.

At about that time, one of the doctors strolled into the room, thumbing through a set of charts.

"Now are you going to do something about her pain?" Doujima asked, sounding as if she was ready to throttle the man. Amon was actually impressed enough that he kept his mouth shut and simply glared that the now stammering doctor while Doujima read him the riot act. After her verbal tongue lashing, the doctor had turned to Amon, seeming to want to talk to someone more rational. Seeing the glare from the older hunter, the doctor backed down and increased the dosages somewhat.

"Everyone, go home," Amon tiredly commanded. "I'll stay with her tonight. Go home, get some sleep. Get lots of sleep. There's no need for all of us to be here." When the others started to protest, he took a posture that dared them to argue with him and face his wrath.

&&&

Amon sat by Robin's bed, his feet propped up on the window sill, the straight-backed chair angled so he could see the door and the window at the same time. His relaxed posture belied his alertness, as more than one attendant had found out. He knew that the hospital staff had started betting on whether or not he slept as he guarded the comatose girl since none of them had witnessed it in the month she had been there.

He spent little time away from her side. At one point the team took shifts watching over the unconscious girl. Except when she was in surgery, someone had been with her continuously - just in case. No one wanted the young witch to wake up alone, but they couldn't afford to all remain by her side.

Robin had woken up once earlier the previous week, after her drug dosages were decreased. Sakaki had been there, but supposedly she had asked for her foreboding partner in the scant moments that she was conscious. Amon hadn't left the hospital since. Feeling immensely guilty for not being there, he had silently vowed he would be there when she woke again.

Amon?" the bedridden girl mumbled, pulling the man out of his thoughts.

"Yes, Robin?" he replied as he turned slightly to watch her. Slowly she opened one eye, obviously struggling against the desire to go back to sleep.

His partner turned her head slightly towards his voice. "Where are we?"

"The hospital."

"I'm not dead?" The question was asked with such incredulity that Amon couldn't help but smirk sardonically.

"No, Robin. You aren't dead."

"You found me."

"Yes, we found you." Robin made some noise that sounded negative in tone.

"No, _you_ found me, didn't you? I remember..."

"Yes, I found you." Amon turned his chair to face her. Leaning over, he gently moved a lock of her hair off of her face before briefly caressing her cheek.

"I remember..." she tried again, her voice getting softer as she struggled to stay awake.

"What do you remember, Robin?" Amon asked, the softness of his voice surprising himself.

"I remember hearing you. Your voice in the dark. I thought I was dead, and it was so cold..." She shuddered at the thought, whimpering at the pain the movement brought.

"Shh. It's ok. You're safe now," he whispered comfortingly.

"Don't leave me," she whimpered, the cadence indicating that she was losing the battle to stay awake. The concentration he saw in her green eyes, though, showed she was still fighting her need for more rest.

"I won't. I'll be right here." The normally impassive man rested his hand on hers. "Now go to sleep," he continued while he slowly trailed his fingertips between her eyes and down the bridge of her nose. The path, and the feather-light touch, caused her to instinctively follow the motion with her eyes, resulting in her closing them.

After he was sure that she was asleep again, Amon leaned over his partner to lightly kiss her forehead. "I'm not ever letting you out of my sight again," he murmured to himself as he sat back down to watch her sleep.

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A/N: I hope you enjoyed this. The ending here was a trial in and of itself. Please feel free to comment, critique, or offer suggestions as you see fit!


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